The present invention relates to a porous ink jet recording element.
In a typical ink jet recording or printing system, ink droplets are ejected from a nozzle at high speed towards a recording element or medium to produce an image on the medium. The ink droplets, or recording liquid, generally comprise a recording agent, such as a dye or pigment, and a large amount of solvent. The solvent, or carrier liquid, typically is made up of water and an organic material such as a monohydric alcohol, a polyhydric alcohol or mixtures thereof.
An ink jet recording element typically comprises a support having on at least one surface thereof an ink-receiving or image-receiving layer, and includes those intended for reflection viewing, which have an opaque support, and those intended for viewing by transmitted light, which have a transparent support.
An important characteristic of ink jet recording elements is their need to dry quickly after printing. To this end, porous recording elements have been developed which provide nearly instantaneous drying as long as they have sufficient thickness and pore volume to effectively contain the liquid ink. For example, a porous recording element can be manufactured by cast coating, in which a particulate-containing coating is applied to a support and is dried in contact with a polished smooth surface.
When a porous recording element is printed with dye-based inks, the dye molecules penetrate the coating layers. However, there is a problem with such porous recording elements in that the optical densities of images printed thereon are lower than one would like. The lower optical densities are believed to be due to optical scatter which occurs when the dye molecules penetrate too far into the porous layer.
EP 1,002,660 relates to a porous ink jet recording element comprising fine particles, hydrophilic binder and a water-soluble, cationic polymer. However, there is a problem with this element in that the density of an image printed on such an element using a water-soluble cationic polymer is lower than one would like.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,704 relates to a nonporous ink jet recording element comprising cationic polymeric vinyl latex and a hydrophilic polymer. However, there is a problem with this nonporous recording element in that it images printed thereon dry too slowly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,469 relates to an ink jet recording element comprising mesoporous particles dispersed in an organic binder. In column 8, it is disclosed that the organic binder can be a cationic latex polymer xe2x80x9chaving less than 10 mole percent of a copolymerizable monomer having a tertamino or quaternary ammonium functionality.xe2x80x9d However, there is a problem with this element in that the density of an image printed on such an element with a binder having less than 10 mole percent of a cationic mordant functionality is lower than one would like.
It is an object of this invention to provide a porous ink jet recording element that, when printed with dye-based inks, provides superior optical densities, good image quality and has an excellent dry time.
This and other objects are achieved in accordance with the invention which comprises an ink jet recording element comprising a support having thereon a porous image-receiving layer comprising:
(a) particles having a mean particle size of from greater than 0.04 xcexcm to about 5 xcexcm; and
(b) water insoluble, cationic, polymeric particles comprising at least about 20 mole percent of a cationic mordant moiety.
By use of the invention, a porous ink jet recording element is obtained that, when printed with dye-based inks, provides superior optical densities, good image quality and has an excellent dry time.